


Debriefing

by Querulousgawks



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Cuddling, F/M, Friendship/Love, M/M, Repressed Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 02:46:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5768407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Querulousgawks/pseuds/Querulousgawks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn tells a story. Poe mends gear. Rey gives a mean hug for a person who hasn't had much chance to practice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Debriefing

"Sanitation was okay, actually."

Finn lay on his back, with the nape of his neck against Poe's thigh and Rey's head pillowed on his own stomach. Rey was supposed to be doing breathing exercises, and Poe was actually mending a cargo net, knots spilling over his arms and brushing Finn's cheek as he spoke. It was easier to talk about this when neither of them could see his face. "Not peaceful - the chief made Phasma seem easy - but it was separate, its own little world, you know? Miles of pipe, and by the time I was 12 I could make a run across the whole system, mixer to methane, in..."

Finn trailed off, and felt the hitch in his own breath mostly in the jostle of Rey's head against him.

"12 parsecs?" Poe asked with a smirk he could _hear_ , and this time the jostle was all on Rey, her shoulders lifting against his side as she snorted.

" _Cold._ " Finn thumped his head against Poe's leg - which, _ow,_ a guy didn't get those muscles sitting in a X-wing every cycle. Although, if not in combat... _Abort line of questioning,_ he thought abruptly, and rushed to cover with indignation: "I am sharing _sacred childhood memories,_ here, assholes, don't act like it's some cantina brag."

Rey made a two-toned hum, probably meant to be encouraging, but Finn knew if he lifted his head she'd be smirking, too. He was on to her.

They had distracted him from the cliff-drop in his memory, though - how long _had_ it taken him? The races in the dark: tank, monitor, tunnel ladder tunnel _jump_ \- time went fuzzy, somewhere in there. It had been the whole world, a secret roaring kingdom, and then-

"Alright, you living legend, tell us what happened when you were twelve. Youngest ever Sanitation Chief?"

Oh, right. There was the cliff bottom. "Growth spurt," Finn croaked through a suddenly raw throat. Damn, he hadn't thought of this in years. "They knew I wouldn't fit in the tunnels for long, so - crosstraining. Combat." 

Rey rolled to face him and her cheek rubbed against his shirt, weird animal comfort over the sudden tension in his belly. Finn fixed his eyes on the net, on Poe's sure hands looking warm and alive against the industrial grey of the rope. He whispered: "it's not like we didn't know, about the Order, it's not like - I knew it wasn't just some giant floating commune." The drop, the _space_ as he stumbled off the ship for the first time, the rushing sky overhead, then closing in, jostling, Oh-Eight's hand as he fell - 

"I didn't _know._ " Finn was breathing raggedly, now. He didn't think it was a lie. He just wished it was - more true. 

It had to sound like a lie, anyway. For a second (half-second) he almost wished they would pull away from him, so he could stop waiting for it. But then Rey lifted her head and he was instantly cold underneath, _why had he even had that thought_ , what if she really was - she was skewing her whole body around, pinwheeling her legs to run parallel to his as she scooted to lay beside him, head on his chest now and one arm wrapped firmly around his waist. She squeezed hard and he choked on something besides guilt, for a minute - those skinny arms were _strong._  (Which only made sense. _She_ hadn't sat in a cockpit all her life, he'd bet that - dammit, _abort._ )

"Twelve years old _,"_ Poe said softly from above them. "Those fucking _fucks._ "

Finn focused on hugging Rey back, not quite sniffling, and heard the _whump_ of the nets falling to one side as Poe brought a hand down to - what? Oh, cradle the side of Finn's face. That - that was okay. 

This was okay.

  
 

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted from tumblr, where I am also querulousgawks. Come say hi, or cry over these space children, as you like.


End file.
